The Fraser

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

In The Fraser, Hutchison, an accomplished Canadian historian, demonstrates his love of the land, his fascination with history, and his mastery of style. An early newspaper review of the book compared Hutchison’s writing style to the turbulence of the river he describes. Certainly the writing is lively and rolling, rushing down choppy passages, pausing for a moment for a little description of the shoreline before dashing on again to fill in some history. The result is fun reading of the best type: the reader is educated while being entertained.

Hutchison chronicles the history of the river from its first discovery by Europeans to the formation of the modern city of Vancouver. Along the way he covers the great names in the opening of the west (Captain Cook, Simon Fraser, Alexander MacKenzie, etc.), the gold rush days, the Cariboo Trail, unique personalities (such as Matthew Begbie, “the hanging judge”), the colorful steamboat days, and a wealth of other bits and pieces, facts and tales. All form a lively stew, bubbling like the white water of the Fraser itself.

In Hutchison’s work the river becomes the central theme of a social history: his subject is the way in which the Fraser shaped the history and everyday events of life in its vicinity. He presents the river as a force that has shaped Canada’s history, is moulding our present, and will affect our future.